Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I received yesterday two Letters from each of our Sons at the Hague, who were very well and in good Spirits on the 25th of April:1 but the Letters contain So much Information, that I have been obliged to lend them to The Secretary of the Treasury: I shall inclose them to you however on Monday
All the next Week will be taken up, I Suppose in further 459 Investigations of the Subject before Senate, and indeed I should be very glad to be ensured that the Decision will be as early as Saturday. If it should be earlier I shall be agreably disappointed. I shall take my Departure as soon as the Business is done, and I hope you will be ready to join me at New York on our Way home without further loss of time.
The Day is at hand when Governor Jay is to take the Reins in New York: may his Administration by easy to himself and happy for the People
That a violent Temper and a weak head should have Said He would combat every Article, is not improbable.
affectionately & ardently yours
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A.”
JQA to JA, 1 April, in which JQA described the growing ideological divide between some of the old Dutch Patriots, with whom JA was familiar, and the new Patriots, for whom “the principles are changed, and the sacred Love of Universal Liberty is the only motive which inspires the actors upon the scene.” JQA also reported on the problems of the Dutch Navy and the weakened Dutch economy, which resulted in open commerce to Dutch ports including grains admitted without duty. He concluded his letter with remarks on French politics and the rumored peace between France and Prussia (Adams Papers).
In addition to this letter, JA may have been referring to JQA’s letter to AA of 25 April, above. The letters from TBA have not been found, although TBA recorded writing letters to America on 11 and 24 April (M/TBA/2, APM Reel 282).
The Sun is so bright and augurs Such heat that I am doubtful whether I shall go out to Landsdowne to dinner.
I dined Yesterday at Mr Wolcotts the Secretary of The Treasury with King Elsworth Cabot and a few others.1 The Conversation turn’d upon old times. One of the Company expressed such Inveteracy against my old Friend Gerry that I could not help taking up his Vindication. The future Election of a Governor, in Case of an empty Chair, excites a Jealousy which I have long perceived. These Things will always be so. Gerrys Merit is inferiour to that of no Man in the Massachusetts, except the present Governor, according to my Ideas and Judgment of Merit. I wish he was more enlarged however and more correct in his Views. He never was one of the threads tyed into the Essex knot, and was never popular with that Sett.
I Sent you Yesterday four Letters from our sons, which have been approved by all who have read them. Mr Wolcott thinks that the
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Report of Merlin upon Clubbs as quoted in Tommys Letter ought to be published— Charles may get it inserted in a Paper without Names or any Circumstances which can indicate the source from whence it comes. If you know Mr Webster you may let him read those Letters in Confidence.2
My hopes are to be at N. York by Saturday night— But my fears are Stronger that I shall not get away from Philadelphia before Monday. if senate should finish on Wednesday I shall sett out on Thursday. But this will depend on the Will of others.
I am with unfeigned Affection
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “June 21 1795.”
Oliver Ellsworth (1745–1807), Princeton 1766, was a lawyer, a member of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1783, and a U.S. senator for Connecticut from 1789 until 1796, at which time he became the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, serving until 1800 (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
).
TBA’s letter has not been found, but he was undoubtedly writing about the declaration presented to France’s National Convention on 12 April, for which see
AA to JA, 19 June, and note 2, above. It does not appear that CA had TBA’s letter published by Noah Webster, who instead printed a translation of Merlin’s declaration, which had appeared in the Paris press (New York American Minerva, 22 June).